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My preparations are coming along, finally, and the countdown started: 4 March I will leave Christchurch – heading towards Washington, Columbus (Ohio), Bremerhaven, Cambridge, and London. All the meetings are organised and I have a long list of questions and ideas for my project: Frozen history – how other countries research, collect and communicate their Antarctic history. It is getting bigger with each contact I made so far and I am looking forward to starting it.

I also have some side events and one of them is a presentation in Cambridge on Wilhelm Filchner, the German polar explorer (1911-1912); 11 April, Friends of SPRI 6-7 pm.

My talk was on the race to the South Pole in its historical context. The title “We took risks. We knew we took them” from a quote from Scott’s diary, should show the audience that it was a risky business (and is still today) in exploring the Antarctic and that the early explorers were well aware of that. The historical context is often overlooked. The economic, political and scientific aims at going South were strongly linked with each other and I wanted to demonstrate this on several examples related to the “race”.

The event on Wednesday started with a movie about the Amundsen expedition and was followed by my talk. There were over 100 people in the audience and they got very engaged in the discussion afterward.

The Norwegian Honorary Consul General, Graeme Mitchel, thanked me at the end of the evening and presented a beautifully handcrafted polar bear of clear glass that looks like a piece of clear ice.

I got contacted by Fortunato Salazar (his working name) to find out more on the Erebus Chalice. There are lots of different versions out there what this chalice means. Salazar contacted many historians who were involved e.g. the Canterbury Museum, David Harrowfield, and also me. After an interview, I gave this comment on the special concept of the chalice: “As the tradition persists, all the years of regarding the chalice as genuine have imparted a symbolic value independent of the chalice’s real origins. Continuity, in itself, seems to provide a kind of comfort. “When the chalice is handed over in the [blessing] service, it gives everyone a feeling of something special, of being a part of a very special group,” says Ursula Rack, a polar historian at the University of Canterbury who has studied the chalice’s symbolic value. “Going to the Antarctic isn’t a granted right, and many people experience real hardship—so the chalice is a sort of security because it implies that others made it through successfully before, and a newcomer will as well.” this quote is from the magazine”The Atlantic

Use the link and read the article – maybe the chalice remains a mystery – the deeper one digs the more questions appear – interesting stuff.

On Monday, 5 February, I was busy. I gave a guided tour for one person through Christchurch to show the connection between the city and the Antarctic. We were lucky to have access to the Canterbury Club where I could show the signed menus from Shackleton’s farewell dinner in 1907. With the historic interior of this Club, it was easy to create a feeling of the time and the man who went South. The Scott statue, the museum and the stain glassed window in the Great Hall were also on the programm. The tour was planned for two hours but I went back to his accommodation and told on the way more stories and facts what was highly appreciated as he pointed out in his email: “Thank you so very much for everything you did for me this morning, it was a sheer delight to meet you and your enthusiasm will stay with me forever. I consider your Heritage Tour an essential precursor to anyone and everyone going to visit the Antarctic, it will add so much more meaning to what I am about to experience.”

An hour later, I was on my way to Parklands to the Parklands’ Ladies Club. I have been invited already in December to deliver that talk on “how to live in the Antarctic” – it was successful again and comments from some women afterward are summed up in following statement: “your talk was the most intersting since some long time”.

Session SH-8 is on Saturday 23 June from 9 – 10:30 am what is on the last day of the conference. I am the lead-convenor and chair of that session.

I also registered for the Software Carpentry & HPC workshop that is being organized for June 16-17. This workshop is for programming for data management. This will be a novum for me but I have to start somewhere….

“Lessons from the Antarctic” How Amundsen won the race to the South Pole is the theme of the series of talks. Panels to Roald Amundsen’s biography are exhibited in Wellington all February and are accompanied by public talks. The panels were displayed also here in Christchurch during the Antarctic Season Opening in October 2017.

The “Amundsen panels” are in Wellington exhibited for the whole February. The NZAS Wellington Branch is the organiser of the talks and the Norwegian Embassy is supporting these events.

My contract as course coordinator for ANTA 101 is finished since 21 December 2017; however, there was still the marking, student contact emails and administration to do what will finish by the end of this week. It was an interesting experience and I learned very much about the background of a course and problem solving during the course.

I am glad that I had this opportunity.

Working hard in the Antarctic to adapt the experience to the teaching at UC, Antarctic 2015